If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.“Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt.” ― Richard P. Feynman'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry PratchettRemember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Nice to meet you Fireball. My Dad and brother were mechanical engineers and I love watching documentaries about great civil engineering. My recent favourite was the series of four programmes about the Cross Rail Project, especially the part where the tunnel was being built just inches above a tube station and inches below an escalator. One of the engineers was sent to the tube station platform with a walkie-talkie to warn the others if tiles started falling off of the walls. It was also fascinating to see how existing buildings had their foundations protected. I have also enjoyed some of the bridge-building programmes too.

I too took a long time, (about 50 years) to get out from under the non-conformist yoke which was a shock to say the least. HAF was a very reassuring place after that and also a count of knowledge about everything from cookery to astronomy and all points in between.

Nice to meet you Fireball. My Dad and brother were mechanical engineers and I love watching documentaries about great civil engineering. My recent favourite was the series of four programmes about the Cross Rail Project, especially the part where the tunnel was being built just inches above a tube station and inches below an escalator. One of the engineers was sent to the tube station platform with a walkie-talkie to warn the others if tiles started falling off of the walls. It was also fascinating to see how existing buildings had their foundations protected. I have also enjoyed some of the bridge-building programmes too.

I too took a long time, (about 50 years) to get out from under the non-conformist yoke which was a shock to say the least. HAF was a very reassuring place after that and also a count of knowledge about everything from cookery to astronomy and all points in between.

We have some good fun here and only rarely do we have serious disputes. Not to say that we always agree but that we do like each other. We have members from all over the place......Australia, England, Norway, Russia, Cyprus, France, Brazil, Germany, etc. That means that we can have the benefit of different cultural points of view as well as to learn about such remote stuff as the geology of Cyprus....... how to bake a kidney pie, and an ever expanding array of subjects.

We are, almost all of us, comfortable with our atheistic position and treat it as a matter of normal existence. Thus we rarely want or need to argue our position. We even have at least one Christian who is a respected and valuable member. He does not hassle us and we do not hassle him. But woe to the religious troll who comes here to teach us about the ways of the lord and his commandments. We have some extraordinarily intellectual members capable of destroying just about anyone who challenges us but most of the time we will not even bother to argue our position with the occasional proselytizer.

I mess around with wood mostly building boats. I am a journeyman machinist and tool maker as well as a graduate mechanical engineer, now retired (and bored senseless). We will have some common interests, no doubt.

We have some good fun here and only rarely do we have serious disputes. Not to say that we always agree but that we do like each other. We have members from all over the place......Australia, England, Norway, Russia, Cyprus, France, Brazil, Germany, etc. That means that we can have the benefit of different cultural points of view as well as to learn about such remote stuff as the geology of Cyprus....... how to bake a kidney pie, and an ever expanding array of subjects.

We are, almost all of us, comfortable with our atheistic position and treat it as a matter of normal existence. Thus we rarely want or need to argue our position. We even have at least one Christian who is a respected and valuable member. He does not hassle us and we do not hassle him. But woe to the religious troll who comes here to teach us about the ways of the lord and his commandments. We have some extraordinarily intellectual members capable of destroying just about anyone who challenges us but most of the time we will not even bother to argue our position with the occasional proselytizer.

I mess around with wood mostly building boats. I am a journeyman machinist and tool maker as well as a graduate mechanical engineer, now retired (and bored senseless). We will have some common interests, no doubt.

Thanks for the welcome! Also, I don't argue with theists, either. It's a total waste of time, IMO.I worked as a mechanic in the US Navy (steam turbines) and again when I got out (cars, trucks, bicycles, whatever) until I got my B Sc in physics. Then went to work as a mechanical guy who translated what the physicists wanted into something that the mechanical designers could use to make their dreams come true. I got laid off of that job and worked in antennas and low observables for about 9 years, then went back to mechanical engineering work. There I designed and built tools and mechanical ground support equipment, and wrote work instructions for building those tools and equipment. In the midst of that, I worked as a journeyman millwright when I was between engineer jobs in the early '90s. Taught high school math and physics for two years, as well. Private school, I don't have a credential. I'm not bored- I do wood carving, wood working, metal working, and fix up my house. It suffered a fair amount of neglect, what with me traveling and being away from home for many months, cumulative about 3 years, in the time span from 2001-2007, and then mass quantities of overtime since then.

Then went to work as a mechanical guy who translated what the physicists wanted into something that the mechanical designers could use to make their dreams come true.

That sort of function formed a large slice of my last job Fireball. Had to design and make tools, test rigs (up to £50 000 budget - but loads of smaller ones with no budget at all, got ace at using orthers' scrap and cast-offs), prototypes etc.

I had no mechanical training, all electronics, no experience of using lathes or mills - good thing I was practical and a quick learner! Oh, add in a bit of chemistry, hydraulics, pneumatics, physics, data proceseing and presentation. Loved that job for the sheer variety and all the problem solving.

Logged

Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

The Asmo shall have you know that He is, in fact, very evil. He is so evil that He is evil.

That out of the way, I do debate theists, but I must admit that debating people like the door-to-door Bible-thumpers has no real purpose outside my fascination with the ease with which someone like me manages to aggravate stupid and/or gullible people without even coming close to crossing any socially acceptable boundaries.

I stopped debating irrational people with the intent of changing their mind and/or pushing my own agenda years ago.